Help to recovery floppy files

Using WinXP SP2. I have a .DOC file on a floppy disk that somehow got
corrupted and can not be accessed. I get the error "disk not formatted".
There are commercial file recovery utilities which cost money and
I can not justify to pay to recover just one file.
What can I do to recover that file from the floppy?
Any free Microsoft utilities?
Thanks,
Nathan

Have you tried another PC?

JS

"Nathan Gutman" <nzgutman@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:OMkkk.13867$LG4.8342@nlpi065.nbdc.sbc.com...
> Using WinXP SP2. I have a .DOC file on a floppy disk that somehow got
> corrupted and can not be accessed. I get the error "disk not formatted".
> There are commercial file recovery utilities which cost money and I can
> not justify to pay to recover just one file.
> What can I do to recover that file from the floppy?
> Any free Microsoft utilities?
> Thanks,
> Nathan

Nathan Gutman wrote:
> Using WinXP SP2. I have a .DOC file on a floppy disk that somehow got
> corrupted and can not be accessed. I get the error "disk not formatted".
> There are commercial file recovery utilities which cost money and
> I can not justify to pay to recover just one file.
> What can I do to recover that file from the floppy?
> Any free Microsoft utilities?
> Thanks,
> Nathan
If you saved the .DOC file on another computer or in another operating
system try to access it on a different computer.
WinXP had showed problems with perfectly reliable floppy drives.
Even in a dual boot situation where the floppy was readable in the other
O/S.

On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:24:11 -0400, Nathan Gutman
<nzgutman@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> Using WinXP SP2. I have a .DOC file on a floppy disk that somehow got
> corrupted and can not be accessed. I get the error "disk not formatted".


Is this a diskette which had been created on another computer, pruning
an earlier version of Windows? If so, you are almost certainly running
into the media descriptor byte problem described here:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140060

The solution is to format another diskette on your computer, then take
it and the original to a computer running Windows 9X, and copy the
original to the newly formatted one. You will then be able to read the
copied diskette on your computer.


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

JS wrote:
> Have you tried another PC?
>
> JS
>
> "Nathan Gutman" <nzgutman@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
> news:OMkkk.13867$LG4.8342@nlpi065.nbdc.sbc.com...
>> Using WinXP SP2. I have a .DOC file on a floppy disk that somehow got
>> corrupted and can not be accessed. I get the error "disk not formatted".
>> There are commercial file recovery utilities which cost money and I can
>> not justify to pay to recover just one file.
>> What can I do to recover that file from the floppy?
>> Any free Microsoft utilities?
>> Thanks,
>> Nathan
>
>
Yes, I did.

--
Nathan Gutman

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
> On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:24:11 -0400, Nathan Gutman
> <nzgutman@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>> Using WinXP SP2. I have a .DOC file on a floppy disk that somehow got
>> corrupted and can not be accessed. I get the error "disk not formatted".
>
>
> Is this a diskette which had been created on another computer, pruning
> an earlier version of Windows? If so, you are almost certainly running
> into the media descriptor byte problem described here:
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140060
>
> The solution is to format another diskette on your computer, then take
> it and the original to a computer running Windows 9X, and copy the
> original to the newly formatted one. You will then be able to read the
> copied diskette on your computer.
>
>
Thank you, it worked! Also, I was amazed that I could see and open the
file on the floppy on a computer running Ubuntu.
Thanks again,
Nathan

--
Nathan Gutman

On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:23:31 -0400, Nathan Gutman
<nzgutman@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
> > On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:24:11 -0400, Nathan Gutman
> > <nzgutman@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> >
> >> Using WinXP SP2. I have a .DOC file on a floppy disk that somehow got
> >> corrupted and can not be accessed. I get the error "disk not formatted".
> >
> >
> > Is this a diskette which had been created on another computer, pruning
> > an earlier version of Windows? If so, you are almost certainly running
> > into the media descriptor byte problem described here:
> >
> > http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140060
> >
> > The solution is to format another diskette on your computer, then take
> > it and the original to a computer running Windows 9X, and copy the
> > original to the newly formatted one. You will then be able to read the
> > copied diskette on your computer.
> >
> >
> Thank you, it worked! Also, I was amazed that I could see and open the
> file on the floppy on a computer running Ubuntu.



You're welcome. Glad to help.

This used to be a fairly common problem, but these days, as we get
farther and farther from computers still running Windows 9x, and as
fewer and fewer computers even have floppy drives, we don't see it as
much as we used to.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

You're correct, I totally forgot about that also.

JS

"Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in message
news:co34945110sq38rc4gt4115nnut375fpvn@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:23:31 -0400, Nathan Gutman
> <nzgutman@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>> Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
>> > On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:24:11 -0400, Nathan Gutman
>> > <nzgutman@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Using WinXP SP2. I have a .DOC file on a floppy disk that somehow got
>> >> corrupted and can not be accessed. I get the error "disk not
>> >> formatted".
>> >
>> >
>> > Is this a diskette which had been created on another computer, pruning
>> > an earlier version of Windows? If so, you are almost certainly running
>> > into the media descriptor byte problem described here:
>> >
>> > http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140060
>> >
>> > The solution is to format another diskette on your computer, then take
>> > it and the original to a computer running Windows 9X, and copy the
>> > original to the newly formatted one. You will then be able to read the
>> > copied diskette on your computer.
>> >
>> >
>> Thank you, it worked! Also, I was amazed that I could see and open the
>> file on the floppy on a computer running Ubuntu.
>
>
>
> You're welcome. Glad to help.
>
> This used to be a fairly common problem, but these days, as we get
> farther and farther from computers still running Windows 9x, and as
> fewer and fewer computers even have floppy drives, we don't see it as
> much as we used to.
>
> --
> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
> On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:23:31 -0400, Nathan Gutman
> <nzgutman@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>> Ken Blake, MVP wrote:
>>> On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:24:11 -0400, Nathan Gutman
>>> <nzgutman@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Using WinXP SP2. I have a .DOC file on a floppy disk that somehow got
>>>> corrupted and can not be accessed. I get the error "disk not
>>>> formatted".
>>>
>>>
>>> Is this a diskette which had been created on another computer, pruning
>>> an earlier version of Windows? If so, you are almost certainly running
>>> into the media descriptor byte problem described here:
>>>
>>> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=140060
>>>
>>> The solution is to format another diskette on your computer, then take
>>> it and the original to a computer running Windows 9X, and copy the
>>> original to the newly formatted one. You will then be able to read the
>>> copied diskette on your computer.
>>>
>>>
>> Thank you, it worked! Also, I was amazed that I could see and open the
>> file on the floppy on a computer running Ubuntu.
>
>
>
> You're welcome. Glad to help.
>
> This used to be a fairly common problem, but these days, as we get
> farther and farther from computers still running Windows 9x, and as
> fewer and fewer computers even have floppy drives, we don't see it as
> much as we used to.

Which is sometimes a problem. I'm thinking of some BIOS updaters, and
also in using BootItNG (without using a CD, which seems a bit overkill
:-). So I elected to get a floppy drive on this newer Dell computer too,
and it HAS come in handy.

On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:46:23 -0600, "Bill in Co."
<not_really_here@earthlink.net> wrote:

> Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

> > This used to be a fairly common problem, but these days, as we get
> > farther and farther from computers still running Windows 9x, and as
> > fewer and fewer computers even have floppy drives, we don't see it as
> > much as we used to.
>
> Which is sometimes a problem. I'm thinking of some BIOS updaters, and
> also in using BootItNG (without using a CD, which seems a bit overkill
> :-). So I elected to get a floppy drive on this newer Dell computer too,
> and it HAS come in handy.


I have my computers custom-built, and for the extra $10 or so that a
floppy drive costs, I *always* get one (except on my laptop). I use
mine extremely seldom, but I'm happier knowing that it's there if I
need it.


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup